Life of William Blake. With Selections from his Poems and Other Writings. A New and Enlarged Edition illustrated from Blake’s own Works. With additional Letters and a Memoir of the Author.
1880. London: Macmillan, 1880.
2 vols., 8vo, xvii, 431; ix, 383 pp., with a portrait frontispiece in each volume and numerous illustrations. Original blue cloth with elaborate gilt-stamped designs. One volume a little worn, else a very good copy of this attractive binding with the binder’s ticket “Bound by Burn & Co” at the back.
§ Second and best edition. Also of interest are the prints (found in all copies) - three from electrotypes of the Virgil prints and 17 from electrotypes of the Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Gilchrist was Blake’s first full-scale biographer. The work was unfinished when he died; his wife Anne helped to complete the Life and survived him by 24 years, with help from Dante Gabriel Rossetti who wrote the final chapter from Gilchrist’s notes, and his brother William Michael Rossetti -- also A.C. Swinburne whose own book on Blake was the result of his researches when reviewing Gilchrist’s book. Bentley, Blake Books, 1680B. Item #109200
Price: $1,250.00